when is pain just pain?

nene2059

This has probably been asked a million times over but I could not find the answer I was seeking when I looked through old threads.  When is pain, like bone pain, concerning for mets and when is it just pain?  I am at the one year mark and maybe that is making me freak a little but lately I have been having pain in my knees.  It is not every day and it may have to do with how much I sit with my legs crossed at work or the shoes I wore but when I get it it aches through the night.  I had chemo, hysterectomy, now on Femara (and Boniva because of said treatment ) and tell myself that it is likely due to one of these things but the nagging doubt is there.  I tried looking up bone mets symptoms and pain seems to be the most common. Not much help there.  I am not going to let this consume me but if it is something I should look into I want to do that asap.  See my onc for a regular appointment on Thursday. Thanks.

Fidelia

hi nene2059 the pain you describe - particularly after you have been sitting for a while - is very consistent with Femara. Get the knees checked prefereably with MRI but it sounds very much like the response to Femara - which causes a lot of bone, muscle and joint pain - of no really consistent pattern but henerally associated with periods of inactivity and then having to move.

Better to be sure - but it sounds exactly like the pain I have had ever since I went on Femara - annoying and debilitating

Fidelia

shuttlemom

Hi: I also have joint pain with swelling, currently on Arimidex, I'm guessing it's from the Arimidex but I'm seeing an Orthapaedic anyway to check it out.

Hattie

My rule of thumb:  if it lasts more than two weeks and doesn't have an explanation I can live with, I get it checked out.  (ok, that is my doc's rule, and I am usually happy to wait longer.  Cancer is not that fast.)  Went for a bone scan once (pulled ligament), did not think thumb bone cancer was likely but worried about arthritis (tendon inflammation), and a few other things.  If pain comes and goes, that is probably less of a concern.

I no longer think CANCER! but I think age, side-effects, what now?, and I like to get answers after a few weeks. 

I hear you about the one year worries!  I had a lumpy scare on my anniversary. It was a cyst only.   

Pay attention, but don't worry--cancer is in the rearview of your life now.

Take care,

--Hattie 

nene2059

Thanks Shuttlemom and Hattie!  Hattie I love that you said, "cancer is in the rearview of your life now".  It is amazing that you don't know what you need to hear that will make you feel better until someone says it.  That is a great way to look at it and I hope to never have to get off at that exit again.

Best wishes to all.